Perseverance--Name List

These people are known for perseverance, but they are not the only ones! Ask your teacher for permission if you choose someone not on this list.

Adams, Jane--social reformer

Alcott, Louisa May--author

Alexander the Great—world conquest

Ali, Muhammad—civil rights

Angelou, Maya—poet, civil rights

Anthony, Susan B.—civil rights

Arc, Joan of--religious activist

Ball, Lucille—actress

Bauby, Jean-Dominique—paralysis

Beethoven, Ludwig van—deafness

Bell, Alexander Graham—invention

Bigelow, Kathryn—director

Braille, Louis--invented braille for the blind

Charles, Ray (musician)—blindness

Chavez, Caesar—workers’ rights

Christie, Agatha--mystery writer

Churchill, Winston--political leader, England

Columbus, Christopher—discovery

Crazy Horse—freedom fighter

Curie, Marie—physicist

Dickinson, Emily--poet

Disney, Walt—business

Drake, Sir Francis--explorer

Douglas, Frederick—civil rights

DuBois, WEB—civil rights

Earhart, Amelia—women’s rights, aviation

Edison, Thomas Alva—invention

Edwards, Elizabeth—cancer

Einstein, Albert—learning disability

El Chino—first Chinese matador in Spain

Emerson, Ralph Waldo--writer

Ford, Henry--inventor of the automobile

Fox, Michael J.--actor

Fox, Terry (runner)—amputee with cancer

Frank, Anne--Holocaust victim

Franklin, Benjamin--scientist, inventor

Frost, Robert--poet

Gandhi, Mahatma--political leader

Galilee, Galileo--scientist

Geronimo—freedom fighter

Gehrig, Lou--sports

Goodall, Jane--scientist

Grandin, Temple—Autism

Gutenberg, Johann--printing

Hawking, Stephen—physics, disability

Hamilton, Bethany--shark survivor

Hershey, Milton—business

Hughes, Langston—poet, civil rights

Jefferson, Thomas--president

Jobs, Steve—business

Jones, James Earl (actor)—stuttering

Keller, Helen—blind and deaf

Kennedy, John F.--president

King, Coretta Scott—civil rights

King, Martin Luther, Jr. –civil rights

Lee, Robert E.—general

Leonardo da Vinci--scientist, artist

Lindbergh, Charles--inventor

Lincoln, Abraham--president

Malcolm X—civil rights

Matlin, Marlee (actress)--deafness

Mandela, Nelson--political leader (South Africa)

Monet, Claude--artist

Newton, Sir Issac--scientist

Parks, Rosa—civil rights

Pasteur, Louis--scientist

Perlman, Itzhak (violinist)—paralyzed from waist down

Poe, Edgar Allan--writer

Powell, John Wesley--explorer

Ralston, Aaron--hiker

Randolph, Wilma—athlete with physical disability

Reeve, Christopher--actor

Revere, Paul--patriot

Roberts, Ed--computer industry executive

Robinson, Jackie--athlete

Roosevelt, Franklin D.—president

Roosevelt, Eleanor--social activist

Rowling, J. K.--writer

Rudolph, Wilma--athlete

Salk, Jonas--doctor

Sowell, Simon—business

Sullivan, Anne—blind, education

Tammet, Daniel—autism

Teresa, Mother--philanthropist

ten Boom, Carrie--Holocaust survivor

Thatcher, Margaret--politician

Thoreau, Henry David--writer

Truth, Sojouner--abolitionish, feminist

Tubman, Harriet--abolitionist

Twain, Mark (Samuel Clemens)--writer

Van Gogh, Vincent (artist)—mental illness, epilepsy

Washington, George—freedom fighter

Wheatley, Phillis—poet, civil rights

Wilson, Woodrow—learning problem

Wonder, Stevie (musician)—blindness

Wright, Orville or Wilbur

Zaharias, Babe Didrikson—female athlete